Brass Neck // Passive Aggressive

Brass Neck Brewery is a Staff Favourite on the map. From the chill atmosphere to the swag they have available for purchase – You can’t not love it there!

Brass Neck is located on Main street in between 5th and 6th avenue. Upon walking through the entrance, you see a wall of rad designed Growlers. They have them in every size and shape you could want.

The front of house is where you can fill up Growlers and buy their branded tshirts and hats, while the back part of the building has a tasting room. This room is similar with other Breweries; shared tables with limited seating. Un like any other Brewery on this Map, you can’t actually see where they brew beer from the tables. Instead there are small “peep holes” around the room that if you’re as curious as me, you’ll look through only to find staff hard at work brewing delicious beers.

Sitting down, wondering what I should drink, I had an amazing Beer Sommelier introduce me to 8 beers I haven’t had the pleasure of trying. She paired them accordingly to how I would drink them. The beers went from a light flavour, sweet under tones, to a dark “meal in a cup” beer. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the pairing.

If you are hungry while being there, you can choose from a variety of “beer snacks”. If you are looking for more of a meal, usually a food truck is on the premises (located out front of Brass Neck).

I chatted with the local patrons, enjoyed my flights of beer and nibbled on a pretzel!

Have an hour (or five) to chill out? Get to Brass Neck, they treat you right!

We have our first winner!!!

SO EXCITING!

As we are gearing up to give our first winner her prize, we at Hoppy Hop wanted to show you all the free swag we have gathered up for prizes!

Want free stuff? Grab a Hoppy Hop Map today!

Red Truck Beer Company has the best Breakfast //

“I may be buzzed, but honestly – Best Breakfast I have had in a while!”

I’ll get into that more in a second, but first lets talk about the f*#^ing amazing location Red Truck has built for you to enjoy a beer, eat some food, take a brewery tour, and/or picking up a case or two in their Red Truck branded store.

When you walk through the gates of Red Trucks facility, you kind of feel like you’re in Beer Heaven. Vintage Trucks lining your way to the front door; you enter into the Shop. This is where you can buy tshirts, hats, growlers, and YES even 6 packs of beer.

The over all aesthetic of Red Truck Beer Company, is like a Car Garage. It’s a big and bright open space, with the room chromed out. Sitting down with my flight of beers (Northwest Ale, Pilsner, Triple Belgian, and my favourite ISA), I watched my fellow patrons start to fill up the tasting room, each also enjoying flights of beers.

I was lucky enough to come by on a Monday, as they have Monster Truck Mondays – Pints are upgraded to 22 ounces instead of the standard 16 ounce FOR THE SAME PRICE. Yes, you read that right!

I soon got hungry, and had my eye on the Hobo Vegetarian all day breakfast, like an egg scramble… And BOY was it a good choice! The breakfast comes with enough Avocado on there to cure your hungry soul, and thick cut toast to top it off. The full sized kitchen has everything to offer from All day breakfast to Tacos, Schnitzel, and burgers (veggie burger is also staff favourite).

Whether you’re coming here for a beer or if you’re staying for food (I highly suggest you do), you will be excited you stop by! The atmosphere matches the staff: exciting, cool, and very good looking!

Steel Toad Brewpub & Dining Hall

Steel Toad Brew Pub and Dining Hall is your first stop on the Hoppy Hop Tour! Depending on the time of day, you can expect anything from a chill pub atmosphere to a busy dining hall.

When I first hopped through the door, my first impression was, “Woah! This place is huge!” With both upstairs and downstairs seating, and a patio looking into the Brewery, this place can certainly fit a lot of people. This Brewery is unlike most, that the “tasting room” is bigger then the Brewery itself!

I was greeted by a super great Hostess. She directed me to the bar, to where I would be spending most of my time. I sat for only a few moments, until the Bartender came over. I knew I wanted to try their beer, as I have never enjoyed a Steel Toad Brewed beer before.

She suggested I try a flight, which I quickly agreed to! I tried the Raspberry Sour, the Oatmeal Stout, the Lager, and the West Coast IPA. The Raspberry was my personal favourite, with just enough sweet to attract my taste buds.

I was curious about the Oktoberfest Lager, as I heard it came in a special glass. The Bartender let me know that now right on through to the end of October, the Oktoberfest Lager comes in a 1 litre stein glass (2 pints of beer). This weekend, Steel Toad will be releasing a special menu directed around Oktoberfest, but that menu is top secret, so you just have to go and see for yourself!

Hopping Mad // Slow and steady wins the race

Buzz here with my first ever blog post!

The saying “case of the Mondays” took on a whole new meaning yesterday! We hopped around on Monday, test driving the new Hoppy Hop Main Street Tour.

I had my trusty sidekick with me yesterday, walking to each Brewery with the intent of two things; A) Play the Scavenger Hunt to win a sweet prize and B) To drink all the beers the breweries have to offer!

Our first stop was to Steel Toad on Quebec & 2nd, what a great place to start! We were quick to make friends with the Head Chef, as we needed to know his name for the first trivia question. We were treated with a paddle of four mini beers, Raspberry Sour and the Oktoberfest Lager, which conveniently comes in a 1 litre stein. The Stein is available to drink out of until the end of October. We may have over done the first stop, as our buzz was hoppin’ off.

We left Steel Toad rosey cheeked and excited to get to our next Brewery of the day, Red Truck. Hungry for food and more Beer, we decided on two Beer paddles of tasters. We tried every flavour of beer Red Truck had to offer (NWA was amazing!!!). After the first paddle was finished, we needed some substance to keep us going! I grabbed the Hobo Veggie Breakfast, while my sidekick ate the Texan Burger. We finished up our flights of beer, checked out the Vintage Trucks they have (they have a few!!!), and stumbled to our next spot.

R&B Brewing is a hop skip and jump away from Redtruck. Because R&B doesn’t have a tasting room quite yet (coming soon!), we decided to grab a Growler of the Sun God Wheat Ale and soak up the rest of the days rays, in a park near our next Brewery destination, and of course took and Instagram pic while we were at it! Make sure you check out when R&B’s fill up station is open, as they were closed but made an exception for this Bunny.

We were on the way to a great night, that we likely wouldn’t remember the next day.

With a new spring in our step, we gathered up the energy and strolled into Brassneck. We had an amazing Beer Expert with some great knowledge on the beers she had on tap. She poured us two flights of beer (8 tasters), and organized them for maximum enjoyment. I loved the names of the rotating taps! “Silly” and “quirky” definitely explain this brewery, with a certain animal made out of salvaged wood sitting above the entrance of the tasting room. The Fallback stout was a unexpected favourite of mine, as I am not usually into stouts. As dark as it was in colour, it was surprisingly rich in flavour but had a great lightness to it! We knew we had 2 more stops to go… As buzzed as we were, we knew it was going to get silly real fast.

Main Street Brewing was next. Boy was I excited to get there, as their beer is great and they have a kitchen that offers everything you’d want when you’ve been drinking for 5 hours. We grabbed Pulled Pork Tacos and Hummus with Pita Bread, to soak up the excessive amount of beer. The staff at Main Street were nice enough to explain their favourite beers, show us some behind the scenes of the Brewery and gave us a tour of the building. We were smart this time, and only grabbed two 8oz glasses of beer. I stuck with the Check Point Charlie, as it was only 3% (anything stronger and I probably would have found a hole to fall asleep in). My pal drank the Fernweh Kolsch, which was also light and refreshing. As the night was coming to an end, we drank leisurely, chilled out, before taking the 6 block trek to our last Brewery of the day, 33 Acres.

We may have been seeing double, but we weren’t willing to call it quite until we got to 33 Acres. Walking in we realized it wasn’t like the rest of the tasting rooms we had gone to. There was a bar atmosphere, with laid back seating arrangements. “Grab a seat where ever you can” one of the staff explained to the couple in front of us. This is a place you can kick back and watch the sun go down, as once you find a seat you’ll want to stay long into the night. We chilled out in a dim lit room, sipping on the French Blanche beer. Ask the staff how the name “33 Acres” came about, it’s a really cool story!